Making A Plan For Living, Retiring, Or Investing In Colombia

What Next In This Land Of Superlatives?

“If I had only known the great opportunity here for assisted living… the low prices and the high staff-to-patient ratio here… 1-to-1! Had I known this, I never would have put my mom in that terrible place in the States. What a mess it is. The staff-to-patient ratio is 1-to-10 or 1-to-20. And it’s twice as expensive…”

“One of the biggest realizations for me living in Latin America is how much personal injury law has changed our culture and our lives in the United States…”

–Lee Harrison, co-host for this week’s Live and Invest in Colombia Conference in Medellín

Begin by clarifying your agenda.

Why are you considering Colombia? What are you looking for? A place to retire? A second home? An investment? Colombia offers many good choices for all those things. You just need to be clear in your own mind about what you’re doing here.

Colombia hides great diversity, from the world-class colonial city of Cartagena to smaller Spanish-colonial towns… from international-class cities, including and especially Medellín, to mountain villages and fincas… plus great beaches, too.

The cost of living in this country is likewise very diverse. You could live here, comfortably, on less than US$1,000 a month… or you could live on US$6,000 or US$7,000 per month or more in Bogotá, for example. You could live like a local or not. Colombia offers a standard of living that competes with the best available anywhere, a truly First World, even luxury-standard kind of living. Again, it’s a question of what you’re looking for and what you want to pay for.

Establishing residency in Colombia is actually as easy as it is represented to be. This has not been my experience in many other countries.

But it’s not only great retirement and lifestyle options that are available in Colombia right now. This country is also one of the best places in the world today to invest in real estate. Specifically, I would direct your attention to El Poblado in Medellín and Santa Marta on the coast.

The other interesting income opportunity in this country right now is to invest in a high interest-earning account. Open an account with the financial house, and you can earn 6% on your money from a time deposit. And you don’t have to be a resident of the country to do this.

The options and opportunities are many. The challenge is getting started. You’ve taken the all-important first step by coming here to Medellín for this week’s conference. Now you’re asking yourself, I’m sure: What next?

That is: What do you do now? When should you make your move?

Sooner is better than later… and now is best. This is always the case. I speak from experience. After you’ve made your move, whatever you decide you want your move to be, your biggest regret will be that you didn’t make it sooner.

In addition, right now, as our convened Colombia experts have been explaining to you over the past two-and-a-half days, thanks to the U.S. dollar’s strength versus the Colombian peso, now is the best time to take action for practical reasons, as well. If your capital is denominated in U.S. dollars, it’s worth nearly 30% more in this country today than it was nine months ago. That’s a big deal and a big reason to act now.

How do you know that things will work out? You don’t know… you can’t know. But you can trust yourself. You have to trust yourself. Trust that you’ll be able to make things work out.

It’s like trying to determine the best time to have kids. There is no best time… no right time… and you just have to trust yourself. You’ll do your best, and you’ll make it work.

As with starting a family, there will always be a reason not to make your move overseas. You’ll always be able to talk yourself into waiting.

You just have to take the leap. Just do it.

It’s not a one-way free fall. You could always move back. And, if it came to that, you’d return home with the memory of what likely will amount to the adventure of your lifetime.

Lee Harrison
Speaking to all those assembled for this week’s Live and Invest in Colombia Conference

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Lee has been living overseas for nearly 15 years, making his first purchase abroad in the colonial city of Cuenca, Ecuador. After that first investment, he traveled extensively across Latin America and Europe looking for the best property deals possible. Lee’s network of property insiders from those travels, along with his understanding of local cultures and languages, has helped him develop insight into local property markets that only the locals usually possess. He offers overseas real estate advice in his weekly Overseas Property Alert.